Confused as to how to move from Intel MAC Big Sur WIN 10 to new M1 with Monterey WIN 11

M

Maurice8

Bit poster
I have read dozens of posts and the release notes of Parallels 17.1, and it is still very confusing.
I now have Windows 10 running on an Intel MAC (Parallels 17.1) that is on Big Sur
I have a new MacBook Pro with an M1 MAX coming in the next 2 weeks that will be running Monterey. When I migrate to that machine, I am hoping my Parallels and and Windows 10 files will migrate as well. And then update to Windows 11 (I will move the Parallel's license to the new machine)

Is there a step by step to go to guide as to "what to do when" to make a conversion of the virtual machine to run on the M1? And when to upgrade to Windows 11? Am I better off upgrading the VM to 11 before moving to a new Mac?

I know that bits and pieces of the answers are buried in the many postings, however I have not been able to find a guide to achieve what I need.
THANKS
 
Unfortunately you cannot use your current version of Windows 10 VM from an Intel Mac. You will have to start over. That is why I haven't moved to the M1 yet.

There are many items about moving to M1 Macs on the blog: https://www.parallels.com/blogs/ and in these forums.
 
Thanks for the very detailed response. I very much appreciate this. I think with the move to the M1, it is time to say goodby to Windows and Intel. I rarely need Windows and I am keeping the older MAC so I can look up whatever is left on the VM and move the data as needed to the MAC. I know it is not Parallels doing these limits of Windows on M1 silicon, but I wished they had been more transparent as I upgraded to 17 believing that I would be able to simply use my Windows 10 on the new machine and upgrade to 11. (probably lots of fine print I missed). Maybe in the not too distant future Microsoft will decide it is worthwhile to simplify their OS on a VM on M1 silicon. Thanks again
 
MichaelH63 said:
Sorry to destroy your hopes, but that is not possible. You can't use an Intel VM on an M1 (ARM) Mac. You will need to clean install Windows 11 ARM on your new Mac.

Unfortunately Microsoft doesn't offer that version of Windows as a download. There are two ways to install Windows, though.

1) Join the Microsoft Insider Program and download a Dev Channel build from there. Previously that used to be the only option. The downside is that Dev Channel builds can be unstable and there's usually no way to move to more stable builds.

2j Go to uupdump.net and build your own iso to install. It's a bit more complicated, but you can find a good guide here. With this method you can install the latest official release build. To do that, first click on the Windows 11 21H2 button directly under the search field. In the list of files, you want one of the files for the arm64 architecture. Currently the file you want is called "Upgrade to Windows 11 (22000.258) arm64". After choosing that file, you can configure options (language, edition) and than download some files. From there follow the instructions from step 6-10 in the guide. You can also build the iso on Mac or Linux, but apparently that can be trickier so do it in your current Windows VM and copy the created iso file to the new Mac to create your Windows 11 VM. You don't need to create the bootable USB drive mentioned in the article. The iso file is enough to create a VM.

So, yeah, Microsoft doesn't make it easy to use Windows on an M1 Mac. You can use a Windows Pro key to activate Windows, though. No need (or even option) to buy a key specifically for Windows ARM. (Possibly a Home key will work too if you build an iso for Home.)

If you want to move data from you old Intel VM to the new M1 VM, Parallels has instructions here.
Click to expand...

Thanks a bunch Michael! Currently downloading the files. After they have been downloaded, do we load it in Parallels?
 
MichaelH63 said:
Sorry to destroy your hopes, but that is not possible. You can't use an Intel VM on an M1 (ARM) Mac. You will need to clean install Windows 11 ARM on your new Mac.

Unfortunately Microsoft doesn't offer that version of Windows as a download. There are two ways to install Windows, though.

1) Join the Microsoft Insider Program and download a Dev Channel build from there. Previously that used to be the only option. The downside is that Dev Channel builds can be unstable and there's usually no way to move to more stable builds.

2j Go to uupdump.net and build your own iso to install. It's a bit more complicated, but you can find a good guide here. With this method you can install the latest official release build. To do that, first click on the Windows 11 21H2 button directly under the search field. In the list of files, you want one of the files for the arm64 architecture. Currently the file you want is called "Upgrade to Windows 11 (22000.258) arm64". After choosing that file, you can configure options (language, edition) and than download some files. From there follow the instructions from step 6-10 in the guide. You can also build the iso on Mac or Linux, but apparently that can be trickier so do it in your current Windows VM and copy the created iso file to the new Mac to create your Windows 11 VM. You don't need to create the bootable USB drive mentioned in the article. The iso file is enough to create a VM.

So, yeah, Microsoft doesn't make it easy to use Windows on an M1 Mac. You can use a Windows Pro key to activate Windows, though. No need (or even option) to buy a key specifically for Windows ARM. (Possibly a Home key will work too if you build an iso for Home.)

If you want to move data from you old Intel VM to the new M1 VM, Parallels has instructions here.
Click to expand...

managed to fix it! it all works like a charm. thank you for all your help - this was awesome!
 
Installed successfully using 22000.258 and was able to activate with Windows 10 Pro license key.
Thanks to MichaelH63!
 
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